NCRST-E Briefing: Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment

Joint Program Oversight Committee MeetingOctober 25, 2002

NCRST-E Research and Directions

Mississippi Gulf Coast: Multiple Research and Support Areas Land Use and Land Cover Change: Multi-Scale Research Air Quality Research: New Sensor and Modeling Technologies Wetlands Mapping: Multi-Location Research and Outreach Computational Mapping: IT, CE, and Geospatial Research (as

well as important standards-based approach to implement) Corridor Planning: Workshop and Research Formulation NCRST-E Taps

– Veridian– Virginia DOT– Washington DOT

MS Gulf Coast Research Activities

NCRST-E is conducting an assessment of land cover and land use change in the Mississippi coastal corridor with the purpose of identifying changes due to transportation and land development. New techniques for classification and analysis were developed.

MS Gulf Coast

Mississippi Gulf Coast:

Land Use and Land Cover Change

MS Gulf Coast

Mississippi Gulf Coast: Assessing Urban Growth

Within Sensitive Coastal Environmental Systems

MS Gulf Coast

Mississippi Gulf Coast: Determining Patterns of

Growth and Quantifying Change and Development

For Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, change is highlightedfor the period from 1991 to 2000.

MS Gulf Coast

Mississippi Gulf Coast:

Supporting the CSX Railroad Relocation EIS Study

MS Gulf Coast

NCRST-E is Studying Land Use and Land Cover Change at Regional, Watershed, and Coastal Levels

NCRST-E is investigating land cover and land use change and impacts of change and developmentat various scales and inmultiple settings.

The research is providingimproved understandingabout environmental andhydrologic impacts of transportation development.

LULC Change

NCRST-E is Studying Transportation Impacts on Air Quality by Using LIDAR Technology

The NCRST-E air quality project is focused on the adverse effects of air pollutants. The primary objectives of this project are: (1) developing guidelines on the use of remote sensing Differential Absorption LIDAR (DIAL) for real-time measurement of air pollution resulting from highway traffic and (2) an air quality model for prediction of air pollution considering the impact of highway traffic, land use, terrain type, and climatic factors.

Air Quality

NCRST-E is Developing New Geospatial Applications and Processing Algorithms for Wetlands Assessment

Soils

Hydrology

Vegetation

The assessment of vegetation, soils, and hydrology forms the basis of standard wetlands field assessments.Determining how those assessmentsare made facilitates the development of surrogate processes using RS and geospatial technologies to producesimilar results.

Research Results:Pecora PaperPoster SessionWorkshop

Wetlands

Hyperspectral Image and LIDAR Data forWetland Identification, Mapping, and Analysis Randolph County, North Carolina

Hyperspectral image data were collected andclassified to obtain classes that closely resembled those used inNWI surveys. LIDAR was used for terrain and hydrologic analysis.

Wetlands

Hyperspectral Image and LIDAR Data for Wetland Mapping and AssessmentEddyville, Iowa

For a new bypass project, the Iowa DOT determined that there were landscape features that gave rise to wetlands in an area where they have planned an alignment. With involvement of NCRST-E high spatial resolution hyperspectral image data will be used to identify areas where wetland vegetation occurs.

Wetlands

Quantitatively assessing the likelihood of wetlands occurrence requires that vegetation classes be stratified and clarified then ranked, combined, and assessed in the context of hydrology and soils for the area. To accomplish the contextual analysis, data analysis steps and products are grouped into vegetation and non-vegetation information groups. Soils and hydrology information products combined to contribute 30 possible points and the vegetation information products combined to contribute 30 possible points.

Wetlands AssessmentAlgorithm Development

Wetlands

Computational Resources for Geospatial Data and Information Use, Distribution, and Management

In a peer review meeting of the TRB statewide GIS committee a consistently echoed theme was the need for improved access and distribution of standard, consistent data sets that are useful for transportation planning and assessment as well as early phases of design.

NCRST-E is working to develop technology for Computational Mapping Engines and Distributed Geospatial Data Libraried that will allow agencies to ….

View Data in a Map….. Select Areas of Interest.... Refine the Area of Interest....

CME

Computational Resources for Geospatial Data and Information Use, Distribution, and Management

AND …. Create Consistent CUSTOM Geospatial Image Products that meet the needs of transportation agencies!

CME

Computational Resources for Geospatial Data and Information Use, Distribution, and Management

The CME is a technology that hides the complexity of data storage, management, and processing from the user and provides a web-based method of access to computational resources that replace traditional image processing workflows …..

Web Access to Data and Methods…. AND Computational Workflows!

CME

NCRST-E Research Formulation:Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment

NCRST-E held a workshop (GICAP 2002) to address the challenge of using remote sensing and geospatial technologies for corridor planning and assessment activities.

Topics and presentations ranged geographically and by transportation modes including such diverse areas as the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, the Virginia Base Mapping Project, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast CSX Railroad relocation project.

GICAP 2002

New Technology Application Projects

There have been new TAP’s selected, three of which have been associated with the NCRST-E:

VeridianVirginia DOTWashington DOT

TAPs

TAP’s, NCRST-E, and RSPA ContactsIncreased Coordination Roles

New TAP linked to NCRST-E

Virginia DOT; Dan Widner widner_dk@vdot.state.va.us 804 - 786 - 6762

Washington DOT; E. LanzerLanzerE@WADOT.WA.GOV360-705-7476

Veridian; John Albasini John.Albasini@veridian.com 228 - 688 - 1504

Designated RSPA contact

Aviva BrecherAviva.Brecher@volpe.dot.gov

617 - 494 - 3470

Chip Wood

Chip.Wood@ost.dot.gov

202 - 366 - 5911

TAPs

Regional Database Development for Transportation Planning

TAPs

Proposed Remote Sensing/GIS Solution Paradigm

1. Change detection analysis for updating landcover/ landuse

2. Sharing of data across the Internet via an Internet Map Server (IMS)

3. GIS based planning tool for automatic calculation of environmental impacts, creation of impact matrices and development of alignment mapping.

TAPs

PROJECT TITLE: Automating Wetlands Identification to meet Federal Reporting Requirements

Objective: Integration with existing GIS architecture to streamline the process for planned road construction projects

TAPs

Remote Sensing and the Planning Process

Remotely sensed wetlands data can be introduced early in the planning process

Benefits include:– Incorporation with other available GIS data layers – Good preliminary indication of potential impact – Provides an accurate guide to field

reconnaissance and survey

TAPs

Washington DOT

The project goal will demonstrate the use of commercial software and remotely sensed data to produce information products that streamline the environmental analysis process for transportation project planning. This project is developing land use land cover data using remote sensing technologies in concert with other digital geospatial resources and methods for the same I-405 corridor, then applying that information to appropriate environmental impact statement topics to determine benefits as compared to traditional environmental assessment methods already performed.